Open Thread: March 16th Camp Notes

The Yankees showed their Fighting Spirit and rallied for a win over the Blue Jays this afternoon. Today’s dinger hitters: Aaron Hicks (okay), Starlin Castro (cool), Rob Refsnyder (wait, really?), and Clint Frazier (sweet!). Refsnyder and Frazier both hit their first of the spring. Hicks, Frazier, Castro, and Ronald Torreyes each had two hits. Tyler Wade and Mason Williams had one apiece.

Luis Cessa started and it did not go well. He allowed four runs on six hits and a walk in only 1.2 innings. Eek. Bryan Mitchell helped his rotation case by striking out five and allowing one run in three innings. James Kaprielian made his Grapefruit League debut late in the game and fanned three in two scoreless innings. He walked one and allowed no hits. Erik Boland heard from scouts Kaprielian’s fastball sat 95 mph and touched 96 mph. Too bad we couldn’t see it. Today’s game wasn’t televised, so there are no video highlights. Here’s the box score and here are the rest of the notes from Spring Training:

Following today’s game, Williams was optioned to Triple-A and Kaprielian was sent to minor league camp, the Yankees announced. There are still 47 players in big league camp by my unofficial count, including the just signed Ernesto Frieri. Williams being sent down may bode well for Aaron Judge. If Judge were to go to Triple-A so Hicks could play right field, Williams would be the obvious fourth outfielder candidate.

Not surprisingly, Joe Girardi said Austin Romine has a “leg up” on Kyle Higashioka for the backup catcher’s job. I’m pretty sure this is the first time the Yankees have even acknowledged a backup catcher competition. Anyway, everything pointed to Romine being the guy. [Bryan Hoch]

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild has been working with Luis Severino to slow down his delivery this spring. “I wasn’t rushing to the plate,” said Severino following his start Tuesday. [Dan Martin]

This is the open thread for the night. MLB Network will have the Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela live at 10pm ET, plus every local hockey and basketball team is in action except the Rangers. Also, March Madness started today, so there’s plenty of college hoops on tonight. Talk about those games or anything else here, as long as it’s not religion or politics.